Half Moon Bay Experience

It was an eventful weekend with Saturday morning spent teaching a class on Jams and Jellies to a new group of MFP trainees. All of the searching and researching the subject (specifically pectin) and the dozen or so batches of strawberry jams and jellies made over the last several months came together in a presentation that was to last 1 ½  hours. I was worried about being able to spend more than ten minutes talking about the subject and instead I felt rushed and had to cut my presentation short. Oh well, I guess it’s all part of learning.

A little about the venue…the class was held in Half Moon Bay at the UC Cooperative Extension office located on the Elkus Ranch. The drive from Volcano to the coast reminded me of why I love California. In a matter of just four hours you can go from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada’s to the breathtaking coastline. The Ranch was donated by the Elkus family in the 70’s and today is used primarily as an environmental educational center for Bay-area children. It’s located in the coastal foothills at the southern end of town separated from the ocean by Highway 1. 

Typically, my participation in the MFP program will be local. I was originally asked to teach this class not because of my far-reaching reputation as a jammer (I have less than two years experience…not what I’d call “seasoned”), but due to the fact I was teamed up with a couple of women from Half Moon Bay who were attending the Amador/Calaveras MFP training class last spring. Their plan was to start the same program in the Bay area. I liked my teammates, Kathi and Chris, and offered to help with their program. Teaching the class was not a consideration when I offered to help. I was thinking more along the lines of working as kitchen help.  Anyway, that was last July.

We arrived Friday afternoon and had dinner at Mezza Luna, an Italian restaurant a short walk from Kathi’s home, where we were staying in her guest apartment. We are rarely spontaneous in our dining decisions and this was no exception. During our class time together, both of my new friends told me about the food at Mezza Luna after I described to them my attempt to make gnocchi.  Upon hearing the restaurant’s name, Vera, who was the fourth in our team, excitedly told me she’d eaten at Mezza Luna several times and loved the gnocchi. Interestingly enough, after we got home from the trip on Saturday afternoon, I talked to a friend who’d lived in Half Moon Bay for years and she too was very familiar with Mezza Luna and its gnocchi. It also turned out that she lived just up the street from Kathi and walked or biked to the marina almost daily passing the very house where we’d stayed. We were not disappointed with the restaurant. The gnocchi served in a Gorgonzola cream sauce was outstanding and the lasagna was also very good, second only to Biba’s in Sacramento.

We finished our evening catching up with Kathi and Chris and helping make galettes (we call them rustic tarts) for the feast they were preparing for the MFP graduation ceremony the following day. With a backyard full of her daughter’s FFA projects, including chickens, sheep, three turkeys (two after Thursday), a duck and a garage with a rabbit, we didn’t lack for conversation. It’s been over a decade since we’ve had a field full of critters, but our 4H experiences are still clear in our minds as well as the crazy stories of a psychopathic bull, being rammed by a ram, and on and on. That reminds me, I didn’t tell them about the skunk in the henhouse that I killed with wasp spray and rocks or the calf in the snow or the prolapsed ewe I had to shoot…something for next time.

On our return trip on Saturday, we stopped to visit with our niece, Susan, in San Lorenzo. I’ve been anxious to see her house renovations, which were just completed in October. The work was extensive, removing walls, redoing all electrical and insulation in the house, new kitchen cabinets and countertops, and the results were amazing. Her home could be featured in Sunset’s issue that focuses on living in small spaces. As is true of all working mothers, Saturdays are busy, and we had a three-hour drive ahead of us, so we kept our visit short. Here’s a favorite picture of Susan and Sophie as well as a couple I took during our visit. Not being prepared for a glam shot, I had to promise Susan I wouldn’t photograph her in her more natural state. That was okay with me, because I must have taken a couple of dozen photos of her little cutie.

We stopped in Jackson to pick up a few things at the market and ran into friends we hadn’t seen in over a year, Rita and Kai. After selling their home in Volcano they lived in our cabin (more recently, my quilting studio) for almost two years. By mid-December they’ll be moved to Santa Cruz and it is unlikely we’ll see them again. That old saying, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder” is certainly true. It was so good to see them both. We stood out in the cold in front of the store for over an hour before we said our goodbyes.

It was dark by the time we finally got home and settled back into our routine of going down to the barn and locking up the chickens, feeding the four cats (we’re still cat-sitting Jana’s two babies), having a cup of tea and bit of dessert, watching an episode or two of Grimm or one of our other favorites, and, for the first time in a while, looking forward to a good nights sleep. I’m not joking when I say that this whole MFP teaching project has kept me awake nights.

Next day…Damn! It was another restless night! What is going on with me? This time I was making a mental list of everything I’d done wrong at the class and also refining my thoughts on pectin and jam-making in general. This has got to stop! I’ve never thought of myself as obsessive, but my recent behavior is disturbing. I am going to write another blog post on the evolution of my jam-biases or something like that. It will be a brain-dump of my random thoughts on the subject and hopefully once that’s done I’ll get past this insomnia problem. If you’ve had a “gut full” (that’s Verne’s expression, not mine) of pectin and jam and jelly talk, then I suggest you skip the next post. Otherwise, read on…

A Final Goodbye

Goodbye, Leanne…you’ll always have a special place in my heart. Your life was far too short.

Leanne died this morning after a year and half battle with cancer. Her suffering is over. As she lived her life, she used her last months preparing for her death by thinking of her family. She worked on finishing projects (photo albums, embroidery, and other handiwork) for each of her children. I had the honor of helping her by completing a quilt for her daughter, Emma. What a beautiful testimony to family and motherhood.

The picture below is four generations: Leanne front and center, her mother and my sister, Judy, our mother and our grandmother. Born two months premature and weighing less than two pounds, all odds were against Leanne’s survival, but she was a fighter then just as she’s been these last several months.

This picture was taken just a few years ago around the same time she graduated from college. Sadly, she received her diploma in the mail the same week she was informed that she had breast cancer. This is how I’ll remember Leanne…beautiful and vibrant loving and being loved by her three children, sons Calib and Nathan, and daughter, Emma. She will be greatly missed.

Mustard Mission

It’s mid-November. Our birch trees are bare and their leaves are now piled high on the deck.  I just took this picture as a reminder of those beautiful, yellow leaves, because Verne is about to get out the blower and remove every last one in preparation for rain tomorrow. They are impossible to remove after a hard rain (even a light rain), not to mention they become a slippery (and hazardous) mess. This has been our routine for at least a decade now and is the result of a compromise after years of disagreeing on the timing of the raking or brooming of fall leaves (more recently, blowing of leaves). I love to watch the leaves fall from the trees and accumulate on the deck. Like pumpkins, it screams: Autumn! While Verne doesn’t need the extra work of removing the leaves multiple times (God knows, 40 acres keeps the man busy), he was always determined to do it at least two or three times during October-November until about ten years ago when we reached a compromise: the first sign of rain determines the timing for leaf blowing. End of discussion.

What does this have to do with the title: Mustard Mission? The color, of course! The mustard color of the leaves reminded me of our experience last week…making and canning our own mustard. I know a few of you are shaking your heads right now (Sally, in particular). While we both love mustards of all kinds, we really never intended to take on the condiment as a canning project. However…one of my jobs with the Master Food Preservers program is to coordinate public classes. Our November class was one called Holiday Favorites and included an overly ambitious agenda of canned and dehydrated items. As the date neared, I checked with the presenters to see if any needed help preparing their items. Never did I expect my offer to be accepted, but it was and the project was to make two of the three mustards that would be demonstrated: Cranberry Mustard and Octoberfest Beer Mustard, both prepared and then water bath processed.

I read the recipes and was pleased that there was no need to make the 30-minute drive to town…we had everything needed to make both mustards. I’m so obsessed with Penzey’s Spices that it’s rare that I don’t have just the right spice for the job. In this case, we needed powdered mustard and both yellow and brown mustard seeds. Check. Fresh cranberries (I repurposed the cranberries I’d just purchased that week for a conserve). Check. Beer (Verne always keeps a supply of Deschutes Pale Ale in the fridge). Check. We started by soaking the seeds in the liquid (vinegar for the one and beer for the other) for a couple of hours and then proceeded to grind the moistened mustard seeds into a grainy paste, mix it with the other ingredient, and simmer until it was reduced by about one-third; taste (that was our idea); jar and water-bath process. As it turns out that next-to-the-last step, “taste”, was a big mistake. Here’s my warning to anyone making mustard: DO NOT TASTE THE MUSTARD AT THIS POINT!

The beer mustard in particular was unbelievably bitter! It was inedible to say the least. I wouldn’t have given it to my worst enemy, let alone a group (32 people attended the event) of strangers. Well, we canned the Cranberry Mustard as it was tolerable, but the failure went down the disposal. It wasn’t even fit to give to the chickens! I have to say it’s often the mess-ups that prove to be the most valuable learning experiences. A little too late, I sat down at my computer and began to research homemade mustard. It didn’t take long to learn that one should never taste the mustard immediately after making it. Why? Because the natural enzymes in the mustard seeds are activated when the seeds are crushed and combined with water or other liquids and are most potent and bitter when freshly prepared. Apparently, warm water de-activates the enzymes and breaks down some of the pungent compounds, whereas cold water keeps them intact. Likewise, vinegar produces a more mellow product than a full-flavored beer.  We’ll never know if our Octoberfest Beer Mustard would have mellowed had we waited those two or three days. It does appear that we did everything right to produce a full-flavored mustard that packs a powerful punch if that’s the objective! I doubt that we’ll be trying our hand at another beer mustard any time soon. However, the third mustard in the trio was delicious and I plan to make it: Wine Sage Mustard. It was a pale yellow color with bits of minced sage leaves and a base of white wine. Yum!

Here’s a few other things I’ve learned about making mustard. Mustard is about as simple to make as jam. There are just two essential ingredients: mustard powder (or seeds) and a liquid to bind the spice. Its heat is directly related to the type of seed used: yellow (sometimes called white) is the mildest, brown and black seeds are much hotter and more pungent. The liquid used to bind the mustard may add flavor and additional heat or pungency based on the liquid’s reaction to the enzymes. The mildest mustards and longest lasting are made with yellow mustard seeds and lots of vinegar, while the hottest mustards are made with the darker seeds and use beer as a liquid base. Mustards last for months in the refrigerator, although they will tame over time and lose much of their pungency within about six months whether they are homemade or commercially produced. I’ve heard people say and read various internet sources that suggest mustard is shelf stable without water bath processing. This is absolutely NOT TRUE! Freshly made mustard either needs to be refrigerated or water bath processed to make it shelf-stable. Don’t believe everything you read (with the exception of my Blog)! Oh, one more thing...ground yellow mustard seeds are a beautiful pale shade of yellow. It is the addition of turmeric that gives French's mustard it's brilliant yellow color.

This mission is far from complete. Expect more about mustard in the future…

A Jelly Journal

Maybe I should rename this blog post “Watch Your Step”…I wrote it two weeks ago, but before I could post it and before Verne and I made our trip to Half Moon Bay where I was to teach a class on Jams and Jellies, I took a tumble and have been house-ridden ever since. To make a long story short, I stupidly walked into the cabin bathroom during its renovation (“renovation” is probably a poor choice of words as it suggests we had a choice here; the bedroom and bathroom floors and part of the walls have been demolished in order to repair extensive damage done by an infestation of powder beetles and dry rot) and fell through the open floor. A 2”x6” floor joist kept me from falling through to the basement. I’d like to think the resulting damage to my body was less than had I fallen through to the floor below, but those positive thoughts haven’t eased the pain.  I left the house for the first time yesterday (eight days since the accident) and thought I’d die before I could get back home to the couch. This recovery may take longer than expected. On a positive note, I feel great when I’m standing so our fall preserving (pears, citrus, cranberries) will continue.

Here’s my original blog post written before my mishap…

Jelly Making - Day 1:

Have I mentioned lately that I love to can? I’m writing this while I wait for the water in the canner to come up to temp. I’m getting ready to process my first batch of real jelly. I say “real”, because my first and only experience was during my MFP training in the spring when we made grape jelly from commercial unsweetened grape juice, rather than real Concord grapes. Although it was loaded with sugar (7 cups to 5 cups of juice), the taste and texture were perfect and it would have fooled any Welch’s grape jelly aficionado. That reminds me of a little jelly trivia I learned recently…during World War II grapelade, developed by a man named Welch in 1918, along with sliced bread (also invented around that same time) and peanut butter were included in soldiers’ rations. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was born. Extremely popular amongst the troops, when soldiers returned home after the war they demanded more of the grapelade. Today, Welch’s grape jelly out sells all other jellies.

Back to today’s canning project and the reason I’m making jelly, something I swore I’d never do. You may remember that I agreed to teach an October class on jams and jellies to new MFP trainees. I’ve been anxiously preparing for the class, both academically (hours of research and a written PowerPoint presentation) as well as practically (hours in the kitchen testing different pectins by making batch after batch of strawberry jam). The Moser Test Kitchen has turned out well over 50 jars of the stuff (I’ve stopped counting) and given away most of it. However, this is a jams and jellies class…emphasis on the jellies. I’ve put off making jelly because, frankly, I’ve felt for a long time that jelly is just a cheater jam without the chunks of fruit. It’s a jam wannabe for sissies. Joking aside (actually, there’s truth in most jokes), Welch’s grape jelly is about my only experience with the product and I have been biased against jelly making since I started jamming two years ago. But, how could I teach a group of trainees without having at least once experienced jelly making?! Thus, our jelly-making project today.

In keeping with the theme (strawberries) Saturday morning Verne and I got up early and went in search of fresh strawberries. I’d noticed a few weeks ago that a couple of fields in the Clements area (a good hour from home) had been replanted with a fall crop and were close to picking. We arrived at the Clements Ridge Produce stand to find strawberries for sale. I took that as a good sign. We came home with six boxes of freshly picked berries and this morning we got up and completed the second step of the process (the first was finding the berries): boiling the fruit for 10 minutes and then placing it in a jelly bag, which allows it to drip over a bowl for several hours. Pressing or squeezing the mixture to speed up the process is a no-no, as the jelly will cloud. Here are a few pictures of this initial step.

The rest of the jelly-making process is the same as making jam, just a little more foam to skim before the beautiful, clear jelly is ladled into the jars. I'm calling it "bubble scum"...a new term for jammers!

It was beginning to gel before we put the jars into the canner - that’s good news (maybe). What we’re after is a clear jelly that jiggles when moved, yet holds its shape when removed from the jar. I’m hoping we have a winner. What fun! And, I can now say I’ve made jelly from scratch.

Jelly Making - Day 2:

I was up early this morning excited about trying our strawberry jelly. For you readers who are not a trained food preserver, jams or jellies must sit for a minimum of 12 hours after being removed from the water bath canner. The point of this waiting period is to allow the product to completely cool (naturally) and hopefully assure a good seal. Well, the seal was perfect, but the jelly was not. It was clear and would most definitely hold its shape when removed from the jar, if, in fact, it could be removed from the jar. It was solid. I shook the jar looking for the jiggle, but there was no movement at all. Our first attempt at making jelly was a failure! Disappointed!!!!

Jelly Making - Day 3:

Two hours round trip drive to Clements Ridge Produce stand for more strawberries and we were back in the kitchen by noon for another try at making jelly. We’d made our first batch with Pomona Pectin, a product I’m determined to love, so rather than trying another pectin, like Sure Jell or Ball, we decided to give Pomona another try. This time, though, we reduced the amount of pectin by 25% hoping that alone would give us a softer gel. Also, in discussing our failure we suspected that we’d boiled the jelly a bit too long after adding the sugar and pectin. The directions said to bring the fruit to a boil, add the sugar and pectin, and bring back to a boil. That last step should take no more than 1-2 minutes. Apparently, we didn’t bring it to an “angry” boil the first time, because it took about 5 minutes to return to a boil. Hmmmm…I’m finding it’s the little things that cause the flops when making jams and jellies.

Jelly Making - Day 4:

Again, we were up early and anxious to try our strawberry jelly. The seal was good and the color looked great. I opened a jar and spooned some onto a plate…it was perfect; blue ribbon quality! It is clear, holds its shape, jiggles when moved, and as an added bonus the taste is amazing…pure strawberry goodness. Success! I now feel like I have the creds to teach Saturday’s class.

P.S. I’m again adding this to my original blog entry. It’s probably apparent, but I’ll tell you anyway…I didn’t get to teach the Saturday class of new trainees in Half Moon Bay, because I spent my Saturday flat on my back in bed drugged out on pain meds.